Thursday, July 31, 2014

Things Worth Knowing ~ Occupations - Part 8

 P List of Occupations

This is a list of some occupations of which many are archaic although surnames usually originated from someone's occupation.


◦PACKER - packs goods such as pickles or herring

◦PACKMAN - travelled around carrying goods for sale in a pack

◦PACK THREAD SPINNER - operator of the machine which made thread or twine

◦PAD MAKER - made small baskets used for measuring

◦PAINTRESS - woman employed in the pottery industry to hand paint the finished articles

◦PAPER-STAINER - one who made wallpaper

◦PALING MAN - seller of eels

◦PALISTER - one who ensured the parks were safe and well kept

◦PALMER - one who had been, or pretended to have been, to the Holy Land

◦PANNIER MAN - fish monger

◦PANNIFEX - somebody who worked in the cloth trade

◦PANSMITH - made pans ie a metal wor

◦PANTER - keeper of the pantry

◦PANTLER - butler

◦PAPERER - inserted the needles into the paper ready for sale in the needlemaking trade

◦PARDONER - seller of indulgences

◦PARGETER - applied ornamental plaster to buildings

◦PARITOR - church officer who attended the magistrates and justices at court for the pupose of executing their orders

◦PARKER - park caretaker

◦PASSAGE KEEPER - kept passages and alleys clean

◦PASTELER - pastry chef

◦PASTOR - shepherd

◦PATTEN MAKER - clog maker or the person who made wooden soles (pattens) to fit under normal shoes to protect from wet and muddy ground

◦PAVER / PAVIOUR - laid paving stones

◦PAVYLER - put up pavilions or tents etc

◦PEDASCULE - schoolmaster

◦PEELER - policeman, constable, bobby (from Sir Robert Peel founder of the police force)

◦PELTERER - one who worked with animal skins

◦PERAMBULATOR - surveyor

◦PERCHEMEAR - one who made parchment

◦PEREGRINATOR - itinerant wanderer

◦PERUKER - wigmaker

◦PESSONER - fish monger

◦PETERMAN - fisherman

◦PETTIFOGGER - shyster lawyer

◦PETTY CHAPMAN - itinerant dealer in small goods, a pedlar

◦PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER - one who made scientific instruments

◦PHRENOLOGIST - diviner of a person's character based on the bumps on a person's head

◦PICKER - one who cast the shuttle on a loom

◦PIECENER / PIECER - one who worked in a spinning mill, employed to piece together any threads which broke (usually a child or woman)

◦PIGMAN - one who sold crockery or bred or looked after pigs on the farm

◦PIKELET MAKER - baker who specialised in making pikelets (a small pancake or crumpet)

◦PIKEMAN - miller's assistant

◦PIKER - tramp or vagrant

◦PILLER - robber

◦PILOT - ship steersman

◦PINDER - dog catcher

◦PINER - laborer

◦PINNER - pin make

◦PINNER UP - dressmakers assistant or one who sold broadsheets or ballards in the streets

◦PIPER - innkeeper

◦PISTOR - baker

◦PIT BROW LASS - female worker who worked on the surface of the mines

◦PITMAN - coal miner

◦PLAITER - maker of straw plaits used in making hats etc

◦PLAYDERER - one who made plaid

◦PLAIN WORKER - performed plain sewing or needlework as opposed to an embroiderer

◦PLANKER - one who planks or kneads the body of the hat during felting

◦PLEACHER / PLAICHER / PLATCHER / PLASHER - hedge layer

◦PLOWMAN - farmer

◦PLOWWRIGHT - maker or repairer of plows

◦PLUMASSIER / PLUMER - made or sold plumes, ornamental feathers

◦POINTER - sharpened needles or pins or lace maker

◦POINTMAKER / POINTMAN - made the tips of laces

◦POINTSMAN - railway worker who operated the points, used to change the line on which the train was travelling

◦POLDAVE WORKER - made poldave, a coarse fabric

◦POLEMAN - surveyor's assistant

◦POLENTIER - poulterer

◦POLLER / POWLER - barber

◦PONDERATOR - inspector of weights and measures

◦PORTABLE SOUP MAKER - converted soup into a dry form for transporting from place to place

◦PORTER - door or gatekeeper

◦POSTILLION - attacher of extra horses to wagons & coaches to help them up hills

◦POST BOY - carried mail from town to town, guard who travelled on the mail coach or outrider who travelled with the stagecoach as a postillion

◦POSTER - one who worked in the quarries breaking rocks

◦POTATO BADGER - seller of potatoes

◦POT BOY / MAN - one who worked in public houses washing and removing dirty pots also did other menial tasks

◦POTTER - maker or seller of pottery

◦POTTER CARRIER - chemist or pharmacist

◦POTTER THROWER - potter who used a wheel and therefore had to throw the clay

◦POULTER - seller of poultry

◦POWER LOOM TUNER - one who maintained the loom in mills

◦PRENTIS - apprentice

◦PRECEPTRESS - school mistress

◦PRICKER - witch hunter, pattern maker or a horseman

◦PRICK LOUISE - tailor

◦PRIG NAPPER - horse thief

◦PROCTOR - official of a university

◦PROP BOBBY - worked in mines checking the pit props

◦PROTHONARY - law clerk

◦PUBLICAN - innkeeper

◦PUDDLER - worked clay into puddle, worked with puddle to make things water tight eg canal walls or worked in puddling iron

◦PUGGARD - thief
P List of Occupations
This is a list of some occupations of which many are archaic although surnames usually originated from someone's occupation.

◦PUGGER - produce clay paste by treading like grapes, usually women and children in brick manufacturing

◦PLUMBUM WORKER - plumber

◦PUNKY - chimney sweep

◦PUREFINDER - old women and young girls who went about the streets gathering dog droppings which were used for tanning leather

◦PURSER - ship's officer in charge of provisions & accounts

◦PUTTER IN - put things in to some form of mechanised process


Thursday, July 24, 2014

Things Worth Knowing ~ Occupations - Part 7

M, N & O List of Occupations

This is a list of some occupations of which many are archaic although surnames usually originated from someone's occupation.

◦MADERER - gathered and sold garlic

◦MAID - female domestic servant

◦MAIL GUARD - armed guard, frequently an ex-soldier, employed on the mail coach service

◦MAISE MAKER - one who made measures for weighing herring catch

◦MALEMAKER - maker of 'Males' or travelling bags

◦MALENDER - farmer

◦MALSTER - brewer, maker or seller of malts

◦MANCIPLE - steward

◦MANGLER - works a mangle

◦MANGLE KEEPER - woman who offered use of the mangle for a fee

◦MANGO - slave dealer

◦MANTUAMAKER - dressmaker

◦MARBLER - one who stained paper or other material, veined in imitation of marble

◦MARSHALL - horse doctor of shoesmith

◦MARSHMAN - paid by various landowners to look after marshlands and tend the animals put to graze there for the season

◦MASHMAKER - maker of the mash-vats or mashels used for mixing malt

◦MASON - stonecutter

◦MASTER - one of three grades of skill recognised by the Guild of Crafts

◦MASTER LUMPER - contractor of laborers at cheap rate of pay

◦MASTER MARINER - ship's captain

◦MATCHET FORGER - knifemaker

◦MAWER - mower

◦MEALMAN - dealer in meal or flour

◦MELDER - corn miller

◦MERCATOR - merchant

◦MERCER - cloth seller

◦METERER - poet

◦MIDWIFE - experience woman who assists in child birth

◦MILLER - corn miller, cloth miller, saw miller

◦MILLERESS - miller's wife

◦MILLERS CARMAN - drove carrier to deliver the flour or seed to the customers

◦MILLPECK - sharpener of mill stones

◦MILLNER - maker of womens' hats

◦MILLWRIGHT - designer & builder of mills or mill machinery

◦MILSTONE INSPECTOR - vagrant, a gentleman of the road

◦MINTMAKER or MINTMASTER - issuer of local currency

◦MIXER - bartender

◦MOCADO WEAVER - weaver of woollen cloth used for making clothes 16-17th century.

◦MOLITOR - miller

◦MONDAYMAN - one who worked for landowner on Mondays in lieu of rent

◦MONGER - (i.e., fish) - dealer

◦MOULDER - maker of molds or castings, brickmaker

◦MOUNTEBANK - seller if ineffectual patent medicines

◦MUDLARK - sewer cleaner, riverbank scavenger

◦MUFFIN MAKER - maker who made muffins

◦MUFFIN MAN - itinerant seller of muffins

◦MUGGLER - pigman

◦MUGSELLER - seller of cups, mugs

◦MULE MINDER - minded the spinning mules in the cotton mills

◦MULESKINNER - teamster

◦MULETEER - mule driver

◦MULTURER - miller

◦MUSICKER - musician

◦MUSTARDER / MUSTARDMAN - made and dealt in mustard

◦NAPERER - royal servant in charge of table linen

◦NAPIER - naperer

◦NARROW WEAVER - weaver of ribbons, tapes, etc

◦NAVIGATOR - laborer building canals or railways

◦NEATHERD - cowherder

◦NECKER - worker responsible for the feeding of cardboard into the machine the makes boxes

◦NEDELLER - needle maker

◦NECESSARY WOMAN - servant responsible for emptying and cleaning chamber pots

◦NETTER - net maker

◦NIGHT SOILMAN / NIGHTMAN - one who emptied cesspits, ashpits and backyard toilets

◦NIGHTWALKER - watchman or bellman

◦NIMGIMMER - doctor

◦NIPPER - lorry boy, a young person employed by the carter or wagoner to assist with the collection and delivery of goods

◦NOB THATCHER - wig maker

◦NOON TENDER - guarded the goods on the quay while the officers were a lunch

◦NOTERER - notary

◦OCCUPIER - tradesman

◦OILMAN - sold the oil for lamps

◦OLITOR - kitchen gardener (from Olitory—a kitchen garden)

◦ORDERLY - soldier who functioned as a servant for an officer

◦ORDINARY KEEPER - innkeeper

◦ORRERY MAKER - made a mechanical apparatus for showing the movements of the planets (named after the Earl of Orrery the inventor)

◦ORRICE WEAVER - designer of lace patterns to be woven with silk thread and silk

◦OSIER PEELER - removed bark from willow rods or osiers which were used in basket weaving, usually women and children (also known as withy peelers)

◦OSTIARY - monastery door keeper

◦OUT CRIER - auctioneer

◦OUTWORKER - worker who carried on their occupation at home, e.g., cotton or woollen weavers but it applies to many occupations

◦OVERLOOKER - superintendent or overseer, especially in the textile mills

◦OVERMAN - supervisor in a colliery who checked the miners work and the quality of the mined coal

◦OWLER - sheep or wool smuggler

◦OYSTER DREDGER - member of the crew on board an oyster fishing boat


Thursday, July 17, 2014

Things Worth Knowing ~ Occupations - Part 6

I,  J, K & L List of Occupations

This is a list of some occupations of which many are archaic although surnames usually originated from someone's occupation.


◦ICEMAN - seller or deliverer of ice

◦IDLEMAN - gentleman of leisure

◦INFIRMARIAN - in charge of an infirmary

◦INTELLIGENCER - spy

◦INTENDENT - director of a public or government business

◦INTERFACTOR - murderer

◦IRON FOUNDER - one who founds or iron

◦IRON MONGER - dealer in hardware made of iron (also known as a feroner)

◦IRON MASTER - owner or manager of a foundry

◦IVORY WORKERS - included makers of combs, boxes, billard balls, buttons, and keys for pianofortes

◦JACK - young male assistant, sailor, or lumberjack

◦JACK-FRAME TENTER - cotton industry worker who operated a jack-frame, used for giving a twist to the thread

◦JACK-SMITH - maker of lifting machinery and contrivances

◦JAGGER - carrier, carter, pedlar or hawker of fish; 19th century, young boy in charge of 'jags'or train of trucks in coal mine; man in charge of pack horse carrying iron ore to be smelted

◦JAKES-FARMER - one who emptied cesspools

◦JAPANNER - one who covers with a hard brilliant coat of any of several varnishes

◦JERQUER - custom house officer who searched ships

◦JERSEY COMBER - worker in woollen manufacture (Jersey - wool which has been combed but not spun into yarn)

◦JOBBER - a buyer in quantity to sell to others, a pieceworker

◦JOBLING GARDENER - one employed on a casual basis

◦JOBMASTER - supplied carriages, horses and drivers for hire

◦JOYNER or JOINER - skilled carpenter

◦JONGLEUR - traveling minstrel

◦JOURNEYMAN - one who served his apprenticeship and mastered his craft; properly, one who no longer is bound to serve for years but is hired day to day

◦JOUSTER - fish monger

◦KEDGER - fisherman

◦KEEKER - colliery official who checked quantity and quality of coal output or weighman

◦KEELER / KEELMAN - bargeman (from keel, a flat bottomed boat)

◦KEMPSTER - wool comber

◦KIDDIER - skinner or dealer in young goats

◦KILNER - limeburner, in charge of a kiln

◦KISSER - made cuishes and high armour

◦KNACKER - harness maker, buyer of old horses and dead animals

◦KNAPPERS - dressed and shaped flints into required shape and size

◦KNELLER / KNULLER - chimmney sweep who solicited custom by knocking on doors

◦KNOCKER-UP - man paid to wake up northern mill and factory workers on early shifts

◦KNOCKKNOBBLER - dog catcher

◦KNOLLER - toller of bells

◦LACE-DRAWER - child employed in lace work, drawing out threads

◦LACEMAN - dealer in lace, who collected it from the makers, usually only those who had bought his thread, and sold it in the lace markets

◦LACE-MASTER / MISTRESS - employed workers in factories or in their homes for the production of lace

◦LACE-RUNNER - young worker who embroidered patterns on lace

◦LACEWOMAN - lady's maid

◦LAGGER - sailor

◦LAGRAETMAN - local constable (Law-Rightman)

◦LASTER - shoe maker

◦LATTENER - brass worker

◦LANDWAITER - customs officer whose duty was to wait or attend on landed goods

◦LAUNDERER - washer

◦LAVENDER - washer woman

◦LAYER - worker in paper mill responsible for a particular stage in paper-making process

◦LEAVELOOKER - examined food on sale at market

◦LEECH or SAWBONES - physician

◦LEGERDEMAINIST - magician

◦LEGGER - canal boatman

◦LEIGHTONWARD - gardener (leighton - a garden)

◦LIGHTERMAN - worker on a flat-bottomed boat

◦LIMNER - illuminator of books, painter or drawer

◦LINENER - linen draper, shirtmaker

◦LINER / LYNER - flax dresser

◦LINKERBOY / MAN - one who carried a link or torch to guide people through city streets at night for a small fee (had to be licensed to trade in early 19th century had and term later sometimes applied to general manservant )

◦LISTER / LITSTER - dyer

◦LITTERMAN - groom (of horses)

◦LOADSMAN - ship's pilot

◦LOBLOLLY BOY - ship's doctor's assistant or errand boy

◦LOCK KEEPER - overseer of canal locks

◦LONGSHOREMAN - stevedore

◦LONG SONG SELLER - street seller who sold popular songsheets printed on paper

◦LORIMER - maker of horse gear

◦LOTSELLER - street seller

◦LUMPER - dock laborer who discharged cargo of timber employed by a master lumper (not the Dock Company) or fine-grain saltmaker, from practice of moulding salt into lumps

◦LUM SWOOPER - chimney sweep

◦LUNGS - alchemist's servant whose duty was to fan the fire

◦LUTHIER - maker and repairer of stringed musical instruments


Monday, July 14, 2014

Manners on Monday ~ Evening Parties – Etiquette for the Guest

Note: This extract is posted true to text in the Ladies’ Book of Etiquette and Manners.

Upon receiving an invitation for an evening party, answer it immediately, that your hostess may know for how many guests she must provide. If, after accepting an invitation, any unforeseen event prevents your keeping the engagement, write a second note, containing your regrets. The usual form is:—

Miss G—— accepts with pleasure Miss S——'s polite invitation for Monday next;

or,

Miss G—— regrets that a prior engagement will prevent her accepting Miss S——'s kind invitation for Monday evening.

Punctuality is a mark of politeness, if your invitation states the hour at which your hostess will be ready to welcome you. Do not be more than half an hour later than the time named, but if unavoidably detained, make no apology when you meet your hostess; it will be in bad taste to speak of your want of punctuality.

When you arrive at your friend's house, do not stop to speak to any one in the hall, or upon the stairs, but go immediately to the dressing room. The gentleman who accompanies you will go to the door of the lady's room, leave you, to remove his own hat and over-coat, and then return to the door to wait for you.

In the dressing-room, do not push forward to the mirror if you see that others are before you there. Wait for your turn, then perform the needful arrangements of your toilette quickly, and re-join your escort as soon as possible. If you meet friends in the lady's-room, do not stop there to chat; you keep your escort waiting, and your friends will join you in the parlor a few moments later.

Avoid all confidential communications or private remarks in the dressing-room. You may be overheard, and give pain or cause annoyance by your untimely conversation.

When you enter the parlor, go immediately to your hostess, and speak to her; if the gentleman attending you is a stranger to the lady of the house, introduce him, and then join the other guests, as by delaying, to converse too long with your hostess, you may prevent her speaking to others who have arrived later than yourself.

If you have no escort, you may with perfect propriety send for the master of the house, to wait upon you from the dressing-room to the parlor, and as soon as you have spoken to the hostess, thank your host and release him, as the same attention may be required by others. Again, when alone, if you meet a friend in the dressing-room, you may ask the privilege of entering the parlor with her and her escort; or, if she also is alone, there is no impropriety in two ladies going into the room unattended by a gentleman.

While you maintain a cheerful deportment, avoid loud talking and laughing, and still more carefully avoid any action or gesture that may attract attention and make you conspicuous.

When dressing for a party, while you show that you honor the occasion by a tasteful dress, avoid glaring colors, or any conspicuous ornament or style of costume.

Avoid long tête-à-tête conversations; they are in bad taste, and to hold confidential communication, especially with gentlemen, is still worse.

Do not make any display of affection for even your dearest friend; kissing in public, or embracing, are in bad taste. Walking with arms encircling waists, or such demonstrative tokens of love, are marks of low breeding.

Avoid crossing the room alone, and never run, even if you feel embarrassed, and wish to cross quickly.

If you are a musician, and certain that you will confer pleasure by a display of your talents, do not make a show of reluctance when invited to play or sing. Comply gracefully, and after one piece, leave the instrument. Be careful to avoid the appearance of wishing to be invited, and, above all, never hint that this would be agreeable. If your hostess has requested you to bring your notes, and you are dependent upon them, bring them, and quietly place them on the music stand, or, still better, send them in the afternoon. It is a better plan, if you are called upon frequently to contribute in this way to the evening's amusement, to learn a few pieces so as to play them perfectly well without notes.

Never attempt any piece before company, unless you are certain that you can play it without mistake or hesitation. When you have finished your song or piece, rise instantly from the piano stool, as your hostess may wish to invite another guest to take the place. If you have a reason for declining to play, do so decidedly when first invited, and do not change your decision.

If your hostess or any of the family play for the guests to dance, it is both polite and kind to offer to relieve them; and if truly polite themselves, they will not take advantage of the offer, to over tax your good nature.

When others are playing or singing, listen quietly and attentively; to laugh or talk loudly when there is music in the room, is rude, both toward the performer and your hostess. If you are conversing at the time the music begins, and you find that your companion is not disposed to listen to the performer at the harp or piano, converse in a low tone, and take a position at some distance from the instrument.

If the rooms are not large enough for all the guests to dance at one time, do not dance every set, even if invited. It is ill-bred and selfish.


When you go up to supper, do not accept anything from any gentleman but the one who has escorted you from the parlor. If others offer you, as they probably will, any refreshment, say that Mr. —— (naming your escort) has gone to get you what you desire. He has a right to be offended, if, after telling him what you wish for, he returns to find you already supplied. It is quite as rude to offer what he brings to another lady. Her escort is probably on the same errand from which yours has just returned. It may seem trivial and childish to warn a lady against putting cakes or bon-bons in her pocket at supper, yet it is often done by those who would deeply resent the accusation of rudeness or meanness. It is not only ill-bred, but it gives rise, if seen, to suspicions that you are so little accustomed to society, or so starved at home, that you are ignorant of the forms of etiquette, or are forced to the theft by positive hunger.

If you are obliged to leave the company at an earlier hour than the other guests, say so to your hostess in a low tone, when you have an opportunity, and then stay a short time in the room, and slip out unperceived. By a formal leave-taking, you may lead others to suppose the hour later than it is in reality, and thus deprive your hostess of other guests, who, but for your example, would have remained longer. French leave is preferable to a formal leave-taking upon such occasions.

If you remain until the usual hour for breaking up, go to your hostess before you leave the room, express  the pleasure you have enjoyed, and bid her farewell.


Within the next week, you should call upon your hostess, if it is the first party you have attended at her house. If she is an intimate friend, the call should be made within a fortnight.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Things Worth Knowing ~ Occupations - Part 5

G & H Lists of Occupations

This is a list of some occupations of which many are archaic although surnames usually originated from someone's occupation.

◦GABELER - tax collector

◦GAFFER - foreman of a work crew

◦GAFFMAN - a bailiff

◦GAGER - tax collector of liquor taxes

◦GALVANISER - iron worker who handled process of coating metal with zinc, to inhibit formation of rust

◦GAMESTER - gambler or prostitute

◦GANGER - overseer or foreman from 1850 onwards

◦GANGSMAN - foreman

◦GANNEKER - tavern keeper

◦GAOLER - jailer

◦GARTHMAN - owner or worker of a fish trap

◦GAS MANAGER - forman position in charge of checking for poisonous gas in coal mine shafts

◦GATER - watchman

◦GATHERER - glassworker who inserted the blow iron into the molten glass ready for the blower

◦GATHERERS BOY - held a shovel to shield the gatherer's face from the heat

◦GATWARD - goat keeper

◦GAUGER - customs official who measured the capacity of imported barrels of liquor in order to calculate the customs duty

◦GAUNTER - glover

◦GAVELLER - userer and in the Forest of Dean, an officer fo the Crown who granted gales or the right to work a mine and in Suffolk a harvest worker, usually female

◦GELDER - castrator of animals, especially horses

◦GEOMETER - skilled in geometry

◦GERUND GRINDER - Latin instructor

◦GILDER - applies gold leaf

◦GIMLER - machinist involved in making a gimp, a kind of card

◦GINOUR - engineer

◦GIRDLER - leather worker who made girdles and belts, chiefly for the Army

◦GLASS COACHMAN - driver of two-horse carriage hired out for the day

◦GLAZIER - glass cutter or window classman

◦GLOVER - one that makes or sells gloves

◦GOAT CARRIAGE MAN - driver of small passenger carriage

◦GOLDSMITH - maker of gold articles, banker

◦GOOSE HERD - tends geese

◦GORZEMAN - seller of gorse or broom

◦GRACE WIFE - midwife

◦GRAFFER - notary or scrivener

◦GRAINER - painted wood to make it look like great and exotic woods

◦GRANGER - farmer

◦GRAVER - carver or sculptor, engraver of images or dockside worker who cleaned ship bottoms by burning and tarring

◦GRAZIER - pastures and raises cattle

◦GREAVE / GRIEVE - bailiff, foreman, sheriff

◦GREEN GROCER - fruit and vegetable seller

◦GREENSMITH - worker in copper or latten

◦GRIMBRIBBER - lawyer

◦GROOVER - miner

◦GROUNDSEL & CHICKWEED SELLER - streetseller of common weeds, used to feed pet songbirds

◦GUINEA PIG - an unattached, or roving person whose fee was usally a guinea

◦GUMMER - one who improved old saws by deepening the cuts

◦GYP - college servant especially one attending undergraduates

◦HABERDASHER - seller of men's clothing

◦HACKER - maker of hoes

◦HACKLER / HACKMAN / HECKLER - one who separated the coarse part of flax or hemp with a hackle, an instrument with teeth in linen industry

◦HACKNEY MAN - renter of horses & carriages

◦HAIR SEATING & CURLED HAIR MERCHANT - dealer in horse-hair stuffing used in upholstery

◦HAIRWEAVER / HAIRMAN - weaver of cloth composed wholly or partly of horsehair

◦HALBERT CARRIER - soldier or halberdier, armed with a halberd, a combination spear and battleaxe (a ceremonial officer)

◦HAMMERMAN - hammerer, a smith

◦HANDSELLER - street vendor

◦HANDWOMAN - midwife or female attendant

◦HARLOT - vagabond, beggar, rogue, 14th century male servant, attendant or menial, and 15th century, loose woman

◦HARMER BECK - constable

◦HARPER - performer on the harp

◦HATCHLER - combed out or carded flax

◦HATTER - maker of or dealer in hats

◦HAWKER / HUCKSTER - peddler

◦HAYMONGER - dealer in hay

◦HAYWARD - fence viewer

◦HEADSMAN - executioner

◦HEADSWOMAN - midwife

◦HEALD KNITTER - operator of a machine which produced a jersey type of fabric as opposed to woven fabric

◦HECK MAKER - maker of a part of a spinning machine by which the yarn is guided to the reels

◦HEDGE LOOKER - supervised good repair of fence and enclosures

◦HEDGER - hedge trimmer

◦HEELMAKER - made shoe heels

◦HELLIER / HILLIER - tiler or slater

◦HELPER-UP - young boy employed in Durham pits to help other workers

◦HEMPHECKLER - flax worker

◦HENCHMAN / HENSMAN - horseman or groom

◦HENTER - thief

◦HEWER - miner who cut coal, stone, etc., a face worker in a mine

◦HIGGLER - one who haggles or bargains or itinerant dealer, similar to a cadger

◦HIGHWAYMAN - robber who preys on public roads

◦HIND - farm laborer

◦HIRED MAN - gardener, farmhand, or stableman

◦HOBBLER - boat tower on a river or canal

◦HODSMAN - mason's assistant

◦HOGGARD - pig drover

◦HONEY DIPPER - extracted raw sewage from catch basins and out-houses

◦HOOFER - dancer

◦HOOKER - 16th century reaper, 19th century worker in textile industry who operated a machine which laid fabric flat in uniform folds of any required length

◦HOOPER - makes hoops for casks (not a cooper)

◦HORNER - worker in horn making spoons, combs, or musical horns

◦HORSE COURSER - owner of race horses

◦HORSE KNAVE - groom

◦HORSE LEECH - veterinarian, farrier

◦HORSE MARINE - man-handled barges on canals when horses could not be used

◦HORSE-CAPPER - dealer in worthless horses

◦HORSE-HAIR CURLER - dressed horse hair which was used extensively in the upholstery trade

◦HOSIER - retailer of stockings, socks, gloves, nightcaps

◦HOSTELLER - innkeeper

◦HOSTLER - cares for horses, stableman, groom, repairer or railway engines

◦HOUSE JOINER - house framer

◦HOUSE WRIGHT - house builder

◦HOTPRESSER - worker in paper or textile industries where product was pressed between glazed boards and hot metal plates to obtain a smooth and shiny surface

◦HOYMAN - one who carries goods and passengers by water (Hoy - small coastal vessel or sloop)

◦HOWDY WIFE - midwife

◦HUCKSTER - sells small wares

◦HUISSHER - usher or door attendant

◦HURDLEMAN / HURDLER - hedge-maker, of wattled framework fencing

◦HURRIERS - term applied to the girls aged 5-18 who were employed as coal-drawers in the coal industry

◦HUSBANDMAN - tenant farmer

◦HUSH SHOP KEEPER - brewed and sold beer without a license (usually as a side line)